Japan is an East Asian country which is mostly in the news for good reasons. The laws of the land are strict on drugs while drinking and smoking is only legal at age 20; they have also been praised for their stricter laws on firearm ownership. Looking at the aforementioned, one will tend to believe that there are mostly well-behaved people in Japan. But while this might be the case now, it has not always been like that, at least a certain Tsutomu Miyazaki dragged this peaceful island country into the history book of countries that had the worst serial killers the world has ever known.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, Tsutomu has gone back to wherever he came from, but the fact remains that his acts while he lived still send shivers down the spine of any human. In his heydays of terror, the press described him as The Little Girl Murderer, Rat Man, The Otaku Killer/The Geek Murderer, and even Dracula. The discoveries made after he was apprehended made it apt to further describe him as a cannibal and necrophile who even practiced vampirism.

Background

Looking back at his early days, it becomes apparent that though Tsutomu Miyazaki’s killing spree lasted within a year, his troubles began way back in time when he was still a child. He was born in Itsukaichi, Tokyo, Japan on the 21st of August 1962 as a product of incest between Katsumi Miyazaki (his father) and his elder sister. Tsutomu Miyazaki was born prematurely as a result of which his hands were deformed; his wrists were attached to his forearm. His family has been repeatedly reported as a well-to-do one, his father owned a newspaper in their Itsukaichi town where they also had the respect of their fellow locals.

Due to this deformity, his fellow students at Itsukaichi Elementary School bullied him repeatedly. Miyazaki in response kept to himself most of the time amidst mounting pressures from his parents to perform well in school. As expected, the later compounded his woes. However, when he got to Meidai Nakano High School in Nakano, Tokyo, his grades improved significantly in his first year but afterward, he got back to the norm. Tsutomu Miyazaki missed out of the customary opportunity to enroll at the Meiji University owing to his poor grades, instead, he trained as a photo technician at a local junior college.

Following the completion of his studies, he moved back to his family’s home which unfortunately fanned the sordid cravings in him. He didn’t get along with his family members especially his two younger sisters. Miyazaki only found solace with his grandfather but in a negative twist of fate, the old man died in 1988. Feeling more dejected than ever, he ate part of his ashes to retain him in his body. In the few weeks that followed, he was caught peeping at one of his sisters who was bathing. On telling him to leave, Tsutomu attacked her. When their mother heard of his actions and scolded him, he attacked her as well showing just how wild he had become.

The next events of his life and its victims are sad, the reason Tsutomu Miyazaki became famous. His crimes shocked his local community, country and indeed the rest of the world. From August 1988 to June 1989, Miyazaki abducted, mutilated, killed and had carnal knowledge of his victims’ corpses. His victims were 4 girls none of which was older than 7 years with the youngest being 4. They are Mari Konno (4 years old), Masami Yoshizawa (7 years old), Erika Namba (4 years old) and Ayako Nomoto (5 years old).

1. Vouyer

One of Tsutomu Miyazaki’s perversions was his voyeurism. Recall you read above that he was caught peeping at his sister while she was bathing. It didn’t stop here. He got obsessed with taking upskirt shots of female college table tennis players which he used to masturbate when he felt like. He also had a craving (beginning in 1984) for child pornography which was legal in Japan at the time.

2. Video Tapes

After his arrest, about 5,763 videotapes on child pornography, violent horror films, torture porn, and anime were found in every nook and cranny of his tiny bedroom. Video documentaries of the 4 girls he had already killed were also discovered by law enforcement authorities in his home.

3. Ritual Killings

Tsutomu abducted his first victim on August 22nd, 1988 marking his 26th birthday. He lured 4-year-old Mari Kono into his Nissan Langley and drove with her to Tokyo’s west side. The killer then parked and stayed under a bridge with his unsuspecting victim for about 30 minutes before he killed her and thereafter had sex with her corpse. His second victim – Masami Yoshizawa was killed in a similar manner on October 3, 1988.

On the 12th of December, the Otaku killer made his third kill in a different fashion. The girl murderer drove down to Naguri, Saitama after forcefully abducting his third victim – Erika Nanba. He forced her to strip naked in his car, took graphic pictures of her before stifling the life out of the innocent 4-year-old.

Tsutomu Miyazaki’s 4th victim didn’t enter his trap till after 6 months of his last kill. He cunningly lured a 5-year-old Ayako Nomoto to take pictures of her in his car. The young girl accented and within a short time of entering his car, she was a corpse wrapped up in a blanket in the trunk of his car.

4. Tormenting to Victim’s Parents

While it is painful enough for a loved one to go missing, it is more devastating to be mailed items suggesting that the missing person has been killed.

This was how Tsutomu Miyazaki tormented the families of Mari Konno and Erika Nanba. He sent the parents of the former some pictures he had taken of their daughter’s clothes, parts of her teeth, ashes from her cremation and a postcard that read “Mari. Cremated. Bones. Investigate. Prove.” For his third victim, he sent her parents a postcard that read “Erika. Cold. Cough. Throat. Rest. Death.”

In both cases, it was reported that he called his victim’s parents but wouldn’t speak on the phone. If they refused to speak, he will leave the line to ring for as much as 20 minutes.

6. Vampirism

As if killing and having carnal knowledge and burning his victims weren’t enough, Tsutomu Miyazaki went a lot more extreme with his 4th victim. He kept her corpse for two days in his apartment, had sex with it and filmed himself in the process. Afterward, he dismembered the body as it began decomposing, dispose of the trunk in a nearby cemetery while he threw away her head elsewhere. For her hands, he did something more with it. Miyazaki sucked them dry of blood and even ate some parts. Fearing that the other parts he disposed of might be discovered, he recovered them and hid in his closet.

7. Unremorseful Arrest

At this point of executing his dastardly acts, nemesis was already catching up with Tsutomu Miyazaki. He was caught while on a hunt for his 5th victim on July 23, 1989. The Japanese serial killer made an attempt to kidnap two sisters, succeeded with one, while the other escaped and reported what just transpired to her father. The lucky man began searching frantically for his missing daughter being in the know of the events of the past months. As luck would have it, he caught a naked Miyazaki in his car taking pictures of his daughter’s genitals.

The Japanese serial killer was quick to escape stark naked but when he returned to his car, the policemen were on ground to apprehend him. Following his arrest and subsequent questioning, Tsutomu admitted to being responsible for the loss and death of the earlier 4 missing girls.

His trial lasted from 1990 to 1997 and the trial received a lot of media attention. However, Tsutomu Miyazaki was never remorseful for his crimes. He instead blamed the motive for his action as being inspired by a certain hybrid Rat Man who promised to bring back his grandfather to life.

While his trial lasted, the humiliation became unbearable for his father who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge in 1994. Contrariwise, his supposed mom visited him in prison every week with comic books.

When he was handed over a death penalty on April 14, 1997, he appealed against it but his appeal was thrown out. On the 17th of June 2008, Tsutomu Miyazaki who was 45 at the time was hanged to death.